I have a small problem. Fujitsu-Siemens laptop had 12.04. My kid somehow managed to format the hard drive. Now I'm trying to install 12.04. Burnt 2 CD, and it will not boot. All I get is a flashing cursor upper left of the screen. Well before you say do an MD5SUM, it has been done. As a matter of fact both CD work OK on other machines, and on the same machine about 3 weeks ago. If I try XP it works. Any ideas.

Specs:

AMILO Pro V8010

Centrino 1.73 Ghz

1.5 GB RAM

60 GB SATA Hard Drive (AHCI Enabled)

I have tried all the things that were suggested, and nothing works. I also tried Ubuntu 11.10, and that didn't work either. I just tried Windows XP on the machine, and it installed fine. I really don't want anything to do with W. So how can I fix this, so I can have Ubuntu back?

2 Answers
2

I performed numerous hard drive tests and it passed, but when I tried to boot the up again, I still received the same black screen with the cursor just blinking.

I also ran a Memory test and it passed. I also took out one of the Ram chips, turned on the computer and still got the same blank/black screen. I switched them around, and still I got the same thing.

I even took the thing apart, and checked the connection between the video card and the board, and that was OK. I replace the CD/DVD drive just in case, and that did not help.

At the end, I tried something that happened to me a long time ago, and that was the network card/cable. I disconnected the cable, and tried, and it worked. So I tested the NIC, and it was faulty. So the problem was the NIC. I replaced it with a USB NIC, and it booted fine, and I was able to install Ubuntu.

After rethinking about the Black Screen with cursor at upper left corner, I suggest you to do these. Cause, those flashing cursor tell me that, BIOS checking for a boot-sector but It was failing.

Check BIOS boot order settings

Just in case, If you have forgotten to boot from CD using first boot device as CDROM. Press the specified key in your keyboard to Enter boot device selection menu in BIOS. I've read just now, Fujitsu Laptop's Bios has these settings:

If the problem still persists, Check CDROM in another machine

Check the CDROM in another machine, You commented that, those worked in other machines 3 weeks ago. I'll recommend to check another time.

If still persists, Try booting from USB

If you see that You can Enter BIOS to select the correct Boot device and also the CDROM is good, I'll suggest you to make a bootable USB and try Booting from that USB. It should work. In that case, I fear, your CDROM drive might get corrupted as Well.